R&B Bridgez: Whitney Houston’s ‘My Love Is Your Love’ 25th Anniversary

Whitney Houston was signed to Arista Records by Clive Davis in 1983. Her self-titled debut album, “Whitney Houston,” was released in 1985, yielded a string of hits including “You Give Good Love” and three consecutive #1 singles, “Saving All My Love For You,” “How Will I Know,” and a song that has become a veritable anthem, “The Greatest Love of All.” Not only did the album establish her as an important new recording artist, but it has went on to sell over 14 million copies in the U.S., plus several million abroad. The album sets the record as the biggest selling debut album by a solo artist.

With the highly anticipated release of her second album “Whitney” in 1987, she made history as the first female artist to enter the Billboard album charts at #1.

“Whitney” featured a new stream of #1 chart-toppers, “I Wanna Dance With Somebody (Who Loves Me),” “Didn’t We Almost Have It All,” “So Emotional,” and “Where Do Broken Hearts Go” — this established Whitney as the only artist ever to have seven consecutive #1 hits, surpassing a record previously set by The Beatles and The Bee Gees.

Whitney’s third powerhouse solo album “I’m Your Baby Tonight,” released in 1990, displayed her versatility on a new collection of tough rhythmic grooves, soulful ballads and up-tempo dance tracks. With back-to-back #1 hits for the title tune and “All the Man That I Need,” followed by “Miracle” and “My Name Is Not Susan,” sales records were set once again, as the album became an international multi-platinum best-seller, to the tune of 10 million copies worldwide.

Whitney’s fourth studio album “My Love Is Your Love,” is the R&B album she always wanted to make. Released 25 years ago today on November 17th, 1998, the album is certified 4x-platinum in the U.S., with global sales in excess of 9 million units. The album includes four platinum singles.

Whitney Houston entered the studio not knowing whether the project would be a greatest-hits collection with a few new tracks or an all new project. But as the songs came together, the answer became apparent.

It was Whitney’s seventh career album, coming after the 8-year period that brought the original motion picture soundtrack albums for “The Bodyguard,” “Waiting To Exhale,” and “The Preacher’s Wife.” “My Love Is Your Love” found Whitney collaborating with some of pop and R&B’s hottest producers.

The set reunited Whitney with Babyface and David Foster. In addition, for the first time Whitney worked with hitmakers Rodney Jerkins, Missy Elliott, Lauryn Hill, and Soulshock and Karlin. It’s important to note, Jermaine Dupri and Diddy, also expressed interest in working on the project, but their schedules didn’t allow them to meet the tight deadlines.

The result was a string of solid crossover hits: the two-time Grammy-nominated “Heartbreak Hotel” featuring Faith Evans and Kelly Price, the Grammy-winning “It’s Not Right But It’s Okay,” “When You Believe” (a duet with Mariah Carey, from The Prince Of Egypt), the title cut “My Love Is Your Love” and the final hit, “I Learned From the Best” (written by Diane Warren, produced and arranged by David Foster), released in early 2000.

“Today’s music is basically youth-oriented. It’s lots of beats and rhythm. Sometimes in today’s music, the lyric doesn’t really play a major part,” Whitney stated to Billboard in 1998. “There are some great lyrics in these songs I’ve selected to do. That alone, I think, is going to be a surprise, just to hear the groove with somebody saying something, a story line. That’s very important to me.”

“I’ve experienced, I feel, I’ve gone through, I understand, I know, I can relate to, and I can interpret.” Whitney added that it would be a mistake to take all the album’s lyrics literally or assume they were autobiographical.

The one exception was the sassy “In My Business,” written by Missy Elliott after a long conversation with Whitney about living in the spotlight. “It’s not a secret that people are always trying to be up in my business,” stated Whitney. “I don’t know what they think I am or what my husband and I do, they just want to know. They feel it’s their right, but it’s not. Missy and I talked about it, and Missy understood.”

With Whitney Houston working on the album until the last possible minute and unavailable for much pre release promotion, Arista held a worldwide satellite press conference on November 5th, 1998. At the time one of the first live streams of an album listening. Hosted by Whitney Houston and Clive Davis from New York, that beamed to press, retailers, and radio globally.

“If anyone has underestimated the magnitude, the breadth of her incredible talent, they’re going to be surprised,” Clive Davis stated. “You find when you get to the superstar level, the knives are always out, whether it’s Madonna, Prince, or Michael Jackson. They have to prove themselves, and they have to do it each time out. And Whitney’s done that.”

The success of “My Love Is Your Love” underscored a phenomenal year for Whitney. In April 1999, with worldwide sales of the album surpassing 5 million units, Whitney stole the show at VH1’s second annual “Divas Live/‘99,” with a performance characterized Jon Pareles in the New York Times as “invincible.” Sharing the stage with a lineup that included Cher, Tina Turner, Brandy and others, Whitney emerged as the star. VH1 announced that the show was the highest-rated telecast in its history.

The 42nd Annual Grammy awards, which took place at the Staples Center in Los Angeles on February 23, 2000,which marked some 15 months since the release of “My Love Is Your Love.” Whitney was on-hand to receive the sixth Grammy award of her career, as “It’s Not Right But It’s Okay” took the honors for Best Female R&B Vocal.

Winning her first R&B Grammy award in a category that included Mary J. Blige, Brandy, Faith Evans, and Macy Gray was extremely gratifying for Whitney Houston.

Celebrate The 25th Anniversary of My “Love Is Your Love!”